The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit unanimously upheld an $83.3 million jury award to E. Jean Carroll for Trump’s 2019 defamatory remarks.
Judges ruled that presidential immunity for official acts does not shield Trump from liability for personal statements made about Carroll.
The decision follows a separate 2023 verdict awarding Carroll $5 million, which Trump’s lawyers plan to challenge before the Supreme Court.
Federal appeals court on Monday upheld the $83.3 million jury award against President Donald Trump in the defamation case brought by writer E. Jean Carroll. The ruling rejected Trump’s argument that presidential immunity protected him from liability for comments he made in 2019, after Carroll accused him of sexually assaulting her in a Manhattan department store decades earlier.
Accordin to New York Times,The unanimous decision by a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit affirmed the jury’s finding that Trump defamed Carroll with malice, including through repeated public attacks on her during and after the trial. Of the total award, $65 million consisted of punitive damages.
The panel — Judges Denny Chin, Sarah A. L. Merriam, and Maria Araújo Kahn — issued a 70-page unsigned opinion rejecting Trump’s legal defense. The judges emphasized that the Supreme Court’s 2024 ruling on presidential immunity applied only to official acts, not to personal conduct or statements.
This verdict, as cited by Reuters, adds to an earlier 2023 ruling, when another Second Circuit panel upheld a $5 million award to Carroll after finding Trump liable for sexual abuse and defamation in separate incidents. Trump’s lawyers have said they intend to seek Supreme Court review of that earlier verdict.
The latest ruling marks a significant legal setback for Trump as he faces mounting courtroom battles alongside his ongoing political campaign.
